Strawberry Banana Coconut Water Smoothie

When I was asked by Epicurex to see if I was interested in trying out their Organic Coconut Water product, I thought I should give it a shot. Coming from Kerala (land of kera - meaning coconut), I definitely wanted to give this product a try. I have tried a few others before, but it was all a miss. None of those felt natural to me. So when I got the package delivered, I and a few of my friends gave it a try - it was like drinking directly from the coconut - nothing un-natural. I have found the perfect Coconut Water that I can drink when away from the land of coconut! I decided to try a recipe for a smoothie with it and it was a hit too!

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Makes 1 cup

Strawberry	- 8
Banana	- 1
Greek yogurt	- 1/4 cup
Coconut water	- 1/4 cup

1. Blend the banana and strawberry well in a mixer.
2. Add the Greek yogurt and coconut water and blend it again to bring it to a smooth consistency.

You can also try freezing the coconut water to make ice cubes and use it to give it a frozen consistency. A very healthy and tasty drink ideal for breakfast or any other time of the day. 

For people who are used to drinking coconut water straight from the coconut, Cocozia is a must try. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

 Check out Cocozia at this link!

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

Muffins are like cupcakes, except that they are a little bigger and it is a widely accepted breakfast item in this part of the world (US). Also cupcakes normally come with frosting and muffins do not. When I think muffins, I think of blueberries, may be because I love blueberry muffins. I feel that muffins are at its best with blueberries; somehow I have a feeling that my 4 year old son believes so too. This recipe is from Ina Garten's book Barefoot Contessa Family Style. Even though it is called Coffee Cake muffins, coffee is not an ingredient; may be they call it so as it is eaten with/or intended to be eaten with coffee at the breakfast table.

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Makes 18 muffins

Unsalted Butter	- 1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsp) at room temperature
Sugar	- 1 1/2 cups
Extra Large Eggs	- 3
Pure Vanilla Extract	- 1 1/2 tsp
Sour Cream	- 1 cup
Milk	- 1/4 cup
All Purpose Flour	- 2 1/2 cups
Baking Powder	- 2 tsp
Baking Soda	- 1/2 tsp
Salt	- 1/2 tsp
Blueberry	- 2 cups

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy for about 5 minutes using an electric mixer.
2. With the mixer at low speed, add one egg at a time to the butter-sugar mixture.
3. Add in vanilla, sour cream and milk to the batter and blend well.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. With the mixer at low speed, add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed.
6. Fold in the blueberries using a spatula and mix it slowly and uniformly into the batter.
7. Preheat the oven at 350 degree F.
8. Line the muffin tray with paper liners and scoop the batter into the paper liners in the muffin pan, filling each cup just over the top.
9. Bake for 30 minutes until top of the muffins are lightly browned and a cake tester comes out clean.

A tip from the book to scoop equal quantity of batter for the muffins was to use an ice cream scoop and to grease the top of the muffin pans to make it easier to take the muffins out. Both the tips worked out well for me.

This is a must-try bakery style muffin which would be a sure hit among the kids. My son liked it so much that he was not happy about me taking a few to office for my friends.

Paalaada - Yummy Rice Crepes

Paalaada is one of the specialty dishes that is made back home during Eid and other special occasions. It is as thin as a crepe paper and just melts in your mouth. Paalaada is so thin that it is folded to some special shape that makes it easy to handle. The name may be cause it is as thin as the skin that forms on heated milk which is called "Paal - Aada" in Tamil/Malayalam. Paalaada is basically a South Tamil Nadu Muslim recipe and being nearer to the border is also made by Muslims in Trivandrum area as well - that is the history that I know of.

Back home, we would not even let Mom fold that first Paalaada that comes out of the pan, as it is definitely for tasting. I still follow that tradition :-) and eat the first one that comes out sharing with my son. But the only thing is that you find it hard to stop with that first one!

Makes 40 - 45 (Serves 5-6 people)

Basmati Rice	- 2 cups (or any variety of raw rice)
Water	- 2-3/4 cups
Eggs	- 2
Coconut Milk	- 1-1/2 cup (thick)
Salt	- to taste

1. Soak the rice for at least 3 hours.
2. Grind the rice into a fine paste with water as needed. Do not exceed the total quantity of water mentioned in the recipe.
3. Add eggs and coconut milk also to the mixer and blend everything together.
4. Add any remaining water to the batter. The consistency that you need is really very watery.
5. Add Salt as needed. Your batter is now ready to be prepared.
6. Heat a 10" or 12" skillet at slightly higher than medium flame.
7. When the skillet is hot, pour a ladle full of batter (a little less than 1/4 cup) into the skillet and immediately rotate the ladle to spread the batter. Watch attached video (My first attempt at the video, rather R's!).



8. Wait for 30-40 seconds until the sides of the paalaada start to come off the pan. You could either use your hands to take it out or turn the skillet upside down on an aluminium foil or a plate to take the paalaada off the skillet.
9. Paalaada is now ready to be folded in any shape you need. I have shown one method in the video or you could fold it into 4.

This goes perfect with any spicy naadan preparations like Mutton Curry, Beef Curry, Chicken Roast, or any vegetable curries. Or as mentioned in the start of the post, eat it without any curries! It is definitely a treat for your taste buds and a must try!

Jammers (Grand Central Bakery Jammers)

 Tomorrow being Thiruvonam, the biggest festival of the state of Kerala, let  me start by wishing all my blogger friends a Happy and Prosperous Onam.

As I have always mentioned in my posts, I am a big fan of cook books. These days flipping through baking cookbooks have become one of my favorite pass times, whether I make something out of it or not is a different question. The recipes should look really impressive and kinda easy to make, for me to come to that- "Try-it-out" mode. So this recipe here is something I came across from "The Grand Central Baking Book". This book contains some of the menu items available at the popular Grand Central Bakery; I have never been to the bakery myself, but reading this book is making me want to. So one of these days I am definitely going to  pay them a visit. The Jammers are really easy to make and a perfect addition to the breakfast menu. 

Makes 7-8 Jammers

All-purpose flour (Maida)	- 2 cups
Granulated Sugar	- 1 1/2 tbsp
Baking Powder	- 1 tsp
Baking Soda	- 1/2 tsp
Salt	- 3/4 tsp
Unsalted Butter	- 1/2 cup (1 stick)
Buttermilk	- 1/2 cup
Jam/Preserve	- 8 tbsp

1. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt) using a whisk.

2. Cut in the butter into the flour and use your hands or a mixer at a low speed to blend the butter into the dry ingredients until the flour texture changes to mealy. You should still see dime sized pieces of butter in the flour. You could refrigerate the mixture covered with a plastic wrap at this point, if you want to prepare later.

3. Make a well in the flour mixture and add in the buttermilk. Gently mix the dough until it comes together. Do not knead too much. The end product of this step should still have visible chunks of butter and floury patches. Add additional buttermilk (a tablespoon at a time), if the dough is dry and too crumbly.

4. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough using the heels and sides of your palm, about 1.5 to 2 inches thick. The dough will not look smooth at this point either, and that is what we want.

5. Using a biscuit cutter or a water glass cut into circles about 2  to 2.5 inches diameter. Roll out the leftover scraps and repeat cutting into circles.

 6. Using your thumb make an indentation at the center of the biscuit that goes almost to the bottom of the biscuit that is wider at the bottom. While doing this, support the outer edge of the biscuits with your fingers.

7. Fill in the indentation with a tablespoon of jam and put them 1 1/2 inches apart in a baking tray lined with a baking sheet.

8. Preheat the oven at 350 degree F and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

The jammers taste at their best when eaten warm. It is definitely a perfect breakfast and I would  also eat it as a snack anytime.

Easy Vellayappam / Palappam with Rice Flour

I have already posted a recipe for Appam which calls for grinding soaked rice. I was getting a lot of searches on Easy Appam and Appam with rice flour on my blog's analytics report. This made me look for easy Appam recipes that can be made with rice flour. I came across one in one of my recently acquired cook books from my India trip this time - The Suriani Kitchen by Lathika George. I have made changes to the measurements in the original recipe and also used roasted rice flour since I did not have unroasted flour. Anyways the result was great. The appams turned out to be softer than the one with soaked rice.

Rice Flour	- 2 cup
Water	- 2 1/2 cup
Cooked Rice	- 3/4 cup
Coconut Milk	- 1 1/2 cup (thick)
Sugar	- 4 tbsp
Salt	- 1/2 tsp
Yeast	- 1 tbsp
Luke Warm Water	- 1/4 cup

1. In a mixer grind the cooked rice with 1/2 a cup of water to a fine paste.
2. Transfer this to a bowl.
3. In the luke warm water add the yeast and let it soak for a few minutes.
4. Now add the Rice Flour, 2 cups of water and coconut milk and blend well. You could use a grinder or a hand mixer.
5. Transfer the rice flour batter along with the cooked rice batter.
6. To this add, sugar, salt and dissolved yeast and mix well.
7. Keep the batter in the oven with the lights turned on. This is for places with cold climate; otherwise you could leave it outside.
8. The batter would be ready, if kept in an oven, in 1 hour. It would ferment and rise. Now adjust the sugar and salt if needed.

You need to use the Appa-Chatti to make appam and follow the below steps.

1. Heat the appa-chatti and smear a little oil.
2. Pour a spoonful of batter and swirl the pan - this leaves the center thick and the sides thinner.
3. Now close the pan and leave it to cook for a minute or two.

The preparation time is really reduced by using the Rice flour. So if you feel like having appam, you don't have to plan a day ahead.

Erachi Upmav / Rava Beef Biryani

Are you thinking yet another Beef Recipe? This recipe is one which you could make with any kind of meat or even with vegetables. This is something that I have ate when I used to visit my relatives' houses for weddings in certain regions of South Tamil Nadu. This is served for breakfast on the wedding day. Then again I was reintroduced to this as a leftover makeover at R's place. My MIL used to make this for breakfast when we had leftover curries - Mutton or Beef. This is a quick and easy and moreover tasty breakfast. All you need is some leftover curries - preferably a Nadan Curry (Traditional Curry) with Gravy.

Coconut Oil	- 2 tbsp
Onion	- 1 small (chopped)
Ginger Garlic paste	- 1 tbsp
Chilly Powder	- 1/2 tsp
Rava (Semolina)	- 2 cup (lightly roasted)
Beef Curry Gravy	- 2 1/2 cup
Beef Pieces from the Curry	- 1 cup
Water	- 1 cup
Coconut	- 1/2 cup (Grated)
Salt	- to taste

1. Heat oil in a pan and saute onion till transparent.
2. Add ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smell is gone.
3. Add the Chilly Powder and saute for another minute.
4. Add the Coconut and mix well. Let it cook for a minute.
5. Add the Beef Curry Gravy, Beef Pieces, Water and Salt and let it boil.
6. Add the Rava and mix well. Close the lid and cook a couple of minutes until the rava is cooked.

Your special breakfast dish is ready to serve. I would suggest that you use a spicy curry - any meat or vegetable or tofu/paneer - to make this upmav. It is worth to make a spicy nadan curry just to make this dish and not have to wait for a leftover. 

Vellayappam / Paalappam

Vellayappam is a specialty of South India. It is pancakes made from fermented rice flour and is one of the main breakfast dishes of the region. The bowl-shape of these appams with the thick-soft center and crisp lace-like sides makes it a feast to the eye; not to mention about the taste buds. The best combination for appam is Stew - be it Mutton, Chicken or Vegetable.

Uncooked Rice      - 2 cup
Cooked Rice          - 1/2 cup
Coconut                - 1/2 cup
Yeast                    - 2 tsp
Luke Warm Water - 1/4 cup
Water                   - 1 1/2 cup
Sugar                    - 3 1/2 tbsp
Salt                       - 1/4 tsp
Oil                         - as needed

1. Soak the rice in water for a minimum of 4 hours. I used Sona Masoori rice. Any raw rice (Pachari) can be used)
2. Once soaked, grind the rice into a very fine paste using 1/2 cup of water. Transfer this to a bowl.
3. Grind the Cooked rice with 1/4 cup of water into a fine paste and transfer along with the rice batter.
4. Grind the coconut with 1/4 cup of water coarsely and add to the bowl.
5. In the luke warm water add yeast and let it dissolve well.
6. Add this yeast, remaining water, salt and sugar to the batter and mix well.
7. Keep the batter in the oven with the lights turned on. This is for places with cold climate; otherwise you could leave it outside.

The batter would be ready, if kept in an oven, in 1 hour. It would ferment and rise. Now adjust the sugar and salt if needed. You need to use the Appa-Chatti to make appam and follow the below steps.

1. Heat the appa-chatti and smear a little oil.
2. Pour a spoonful of batter and swirl the pan - this leaves the center thick and the sides thinner.
3. Now close the pan and leave it to cook for a minute or two.

Take off the appam from the pan when cooked and serve with stew. This measurement would make around 20 appams.

Note:- 1 cup = 250ml

Mutta Appam

First let me Wish a Very Happy Twenty Ten to all my friends out there!

Mutta Appam is a quick and easy snack/breakfast. This is something I learnt from my MIL. She has a lot of such easy and quick fix dishes, most of which I have just eaten without wondering how it is made, when I used to live with R's family back in India. Now I have started calling her up for these easy dishes. So you could expect more of these kinds coming up soon... I guess these may have an origin from South Tamil Nadu, as she is from there...

For making Mutta Appam, you would need the following:

Rice Flour      -  1 cup (flour used for Idiyappam - Roasted flour)
Egg                -  2
Coconut         -  3/4 cup (Grated)
Sugar             -  2 - 3 tbsp
Salt                -  1/4 tsp
Water            -  1 1/4 cup
Small Onions  -  2
Oil                 -  1 tbsp

1. Take the rice flour in a mixing bowl and add the Eggs to it and mix well.
2. Add Coconut, Sugar, Salt and Water to the rice flour and make a batter as thick as the Dosa / Pancake batter.
3. Chop the small onions into small pieces.
4. Heat a tawa / frying pan (at least an inch deep).
5. Pour 1/2 tbsp oil into the pan and add half the onions to this when the oil is hot enough.
6. Let the Onions slightly brown.
7. Pour half of the batter to this and ensure that the heat is at medium.
8. When the top of the mixture is almost set, turn it over (this would take 8-10 minutes).
9. Give the other side 5-6 minutes and take it out.
10. Repeat the same steps for the next one.
11. Sprinkle some sugar on top, if needed. 

You could divide the batter into 3 portions and make 3 appams, if you want a slightly thinner version.